I have been collecting recipes from all sorts of sources for years. This particular recipe is one of our absolute favourites and was published in the Australian Women’s Weekly in November 1985 (yes I am that old!) The pictures are also from that magazine article.
If you use wooden shortbread moulds as per the example this batch of dough will make 6 large or 12 small shortbread shapes. You could roll it into two rounds of dough around 1cm thick and mark into wedges but don’t cut all the way through. Dock with a fork and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
You could use an ordinary cookie cutter like we do, in whatever shape takes your fancy and the dough will give you around 35 biscuits. We roll out our dough to around 1/2 cm thick and bake at 150C for 18 minutes. Make sure that you leave a gap between the biscuits to allow for spread.
The shortbread will become more crisp when it is cold. Once baked it will keep in an airtight container for at least 2 weeks.
Traditional Shortbread
A delicious buttery shortbread with a nice crunch
- 250 gram butter
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
- 2 1/4 cups plain flour
- 1/4 cup ground rice or rice flour
Cream the butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Stir in sifted flour and rice flour, knead lightly until smooth on a lightly floured surface.
Dust the moulds with some extra plain flour, shake out excess flour.
Press dough firmly into mould, and trim the excess dough away with a sharp knife.
Gently tap out the dough from the mould. Place on lightly greased oven trays, Bake in a slow oven until pale brown. Carefully lift on to a wire rack to cool.
